Ex-waitress sentenced in credit card 'skimming' scheme

Hour Staff Reports

Published 6:24 am, Friday, April 6, 2012

STAMFORD -- A former waitress who once worked at a Stamford restaurant has been sentenced to two months in prison, followed by four months of home confinement, for her role in a credit card fraud scheme stemming from that city eatery, according to federal authorities.

Chibuzo Okafor, 26, of Rosedale, N.Y., was sentenced Tuesday in Bridgeport in connection with the credit card "skimming" scheme, in which she and her co-worker, Natasha Smith, stole credit card information from customers in a Stamford restaurant using "skimming devices," according to U.S. Department of Justice spokesman Tom Carson. Federal authorities did not disclose the name of the city restaurant.

According to court documents and statements made in court, Okafor worked as a waitress at the restaurant from September 2008 to January 2009. When restaurant customers paid with their credit cards, Okafor and Smith swiped the cards through hand-held skimmers before running them through the restaurant's own legitimate credit card verification system, according to federal authorities. The skimming devices copied and stored the account information encoded on the magnetic strips on the back of the credit cards. Every few weeks, an individual who supplied the skimming devices met Okafor or Smith so they could turn over the credit card information to him, which was stored on the devices, Carson said. Okafor and Smith were paid either $20 or $25 for each credit card they successfully swiped through the skimming device, he said. They were then given new skimmers so they could continue with the scheme, according to federal authorities. The stolen credit card information was later used by those participating in the scheme to make unauthorized purchases, Carson said.

While Okafor and Smith were employed at the Stamford restaurant, approximately 92 credit cards were compromised, the majority of which were compromised by Okafor, resulting in losses of approximately $135,888, according to Carson. Approximately $145,435 in additional losses have been attributed to the scheme earlier in 2008, while Okafor was employed at a restaurant in New York, he said.

Okafor has also been ordered by U.S. District Judge Janet C. Hall to pay $281, 323 in restitution.

The Rosedale, N.Y., resident pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit access device fraud on March 10, 2010.

Smith pleaded guilty to the same charge and, on December 27, 2011, she was sentenced to three years of probation, the first four months to be served in home confinement. She also was ordered to pay restitution of $135,888, according to Carson.